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Body talk

We take a look a studio show exploring science and the human body, coming to The Marlowe Studio next month.

“I was born on 18 December 1988. I dressed up as a bandicoot once. I was diagnosed with cancer 2,102,000 minutes ago…”

So begins the eulogy of Toby Peach. A eulogy is a celebration of life – some day we’ll all need one, but Toby has chosen to deliver his now, after twice being diagnosed with cancer – Hodgkin’s Lymphoma to be precise – the first time aged 19, and the second time at 21.

Toby – yes, he is a real person – has now been in remission for five years, and is telling his story in this one-man show, to raise awareness of a disease that’s now forecast to affect one in two of us. You might think that a show about cancer would be a bit depressing, but this one has a definite ‘sense of tumour’ (get it?). It’s both uplifting and funny – join Toby as he joins the not so elusive ‘Cancer Club’, tries a chemotherapy cocktail, and marvels at Willy Wonka’s amazing stem cell machine…

Toby himself is a theatre maker, who was on the BBC Performing Arts Fund’s ‘One To Watch’ list in 2015. He’s worked at the Old Vic, the Battersea Arts Centre and The Bush Theatre to name but a few – and as his show is supported by the Wellcome Trust, the world’s largest medical research charity, you can be sure that it will be medically accurate, as well as entertaining.

As well as describing the show as “heartfelt and buoyant”, The Stage says that Toby tells his story by, “superbly clowning against the dark while educating and informing with sensitivity and verve”. A Younger Theatre describes the show as “a charming celebration of survival”, while The Scotsman concluded that, “Toby looks and acts like a Superhero”. Definitely one to watch!